June 13, 2020

DON'T GO FAR OFF BY PABLO NERUDA


DON'T GO FAR OFF BY PABLO NERUDA 


Don't go far off, not even for a day, because -- 

because -- I don't know how to say it: a day is long 

and I will be waiting for you, as in an empty station 

when the trains are parked off somewhere else, asleep. 


Don't leave me, even for an hour, because 

then the little drops of anguish will all run together, 

the smoke that roams looking for a home will drift 

into me, choking my lost heart. 


Oh, may your silhouette never dissolve on the beach; 

may your eyelids never flutter into the empty distance. 

Don't leave me for a second, my dearest, 


because in that moment you'll have gone so far 

I'll wander mazily over all the earth, asking, 

Will you come back? Will you leave me here, dying?